


Key to Your Heart

by OfMonstersAndWerewolves



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Land Without Magic (Once Upon a Time), Love Locks, Post-Canon, Takes place during their Honeymoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21923926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfMonstersAndWerewolves/pseuds/OfMonstersAndWerewolves
Summary: Alice and Robin are coming to the end of their Honeymoon, but there's one thing they still have to do first. Wandering along the riverside, they come back up to the small bridge they passed earlier, a padlock and key in their possession...
Relationships: Alice | Tilly/Robin | Margot
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26





	Key to Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> So here's a relatively short, fluffy oneshot idea I had for these two. Hope you enjoy!

Walking along the riverside with their hands held, occasionally swinging their arms back and forth, the sun shining and the birds tweeting from the surrounding trees, Alice and Robin were in complete bliss. 

After a very eventful start to their honeymoon, of little surprise to either themselves or their families, they'd found themselves travelling around The Land Without Magic. They were a little more limited here in their endeavours than they were in most other realms, having to rely much more heavily on money. And pretty soon they’d have to catch a plane back to Maine, back to Storybrooke, with many an adventure to tell.

But not yet. Not quite yet.

A busker was busy singing and playing guitar for his companion dancing to his side, and Alice gleefully joined in, Robin watching and adamantly declining Alice’s attempt to get her to do the same. 

A wilting patch of flowers lay amongst the grassy riverbank, and with a wave of her hands, Alice seemingly brought them back to their full potential in a matter of seconds, Robin noticing the ease with which her fingers danced through the air.

An excitable, young puppy came bounding passed them and was subsequently caught by Robin, having escaped his owner’s grip on the lead. 

But eventually, they found themselves coming back up to the bridge they’d passed earlier that day, both sides of its strong structure covered in padlocks. Love locks, of every shape and age, hung on the bridge by lovers from all around. 

Some newly placed, others caked in rust, having seen many a gale and rain shower, aged, for many, even beyond their owner’s time. Some large, some small, some brightly coloured, or oddly shaped, or flourished with a personal detail here and there.

But as they got nearer, they came upon a willow tree beside the river, its long branches and leaves hanging down to offer a curtained seclusion from fellow walkers. 

“How about under here?”

In answer, Robin extended her hand out to indicate Alice to lead the way, and followed her under the willow, so they were now hidden from the path. “Still got it?” she said, as she leant against the tree, looking back over her shoulder to make doubly sure no one could see them.

“Uh-huh,” Alice answered, stepping down off the root she’d been casually balancing on. She shoved the small, currently empty glass vial into her wife’s face.

But before she could do anything more than drop her arm back down to her side again, Robin leant forward, their lips meeting, the two women melting into the touch. As electrifying as ever, Robin pulled Alice close, her arms wrapping around her waist. And as they kissed, Alice somewhat awkwardly lifted the bottle above their heads to uncork it, dropping it back down to the side, beside their heads once she’d done so.

If anybody **had** randomly walked through under the willow branches and peeked behind the tree trunk for whatever reason, they would have no doubt found it quite strange to see a couple kissing with a small bottle raised beside their faces. That was without considering the potential visibility of the literal magic that was hopefully occurring, but since both women had their eyes closed, neither knew whether that was the case. Eventually, their lips parted and, without so much as a flinch of her head, Alice’s eyes flicked sideways to the bottle.

“Bingo,” Alice said, grinning widely. She recorked the bottle and leant her head against Robin’s shoulder, before the two of them glanced in its direction.

Because now, right there in the bottle, was an extract of their love. Or True Love’s Kiss. Or… well, something along those lines anyway. She wasn’t entirely sure how it worked, but then even her own magic still mystified her at times. A puzzle she couldn’t fully solve. There was still a lot she had yet to figure out about it all.

Take, for instance, the fact Alice had successfully performed magic in a land known for its absence. For despite its name, Alice, being Alice, had found that she could, in fact, use her powers in ‘The Land Without Magic’. She couldn’t easily do so; it felt like she had to force it a little, as though the realm was attempting to fight back against her, and many aspects of her magic simply refused to budge its stubbornness no matter how hard she tried.

Perhaps if she were a full nymph, she’d be able to utilise all of her magic here, given the realm’s origins. Or perhaps it wouldn’t matter. Perhaps this land had seen so little magic used by either its inhabitants or outsiders in so long, it simply didn’t know how to handle too much all at once. But whatever the reason, the little bottle was now full.

It wasn’t much to look at, to be fair; it resembled nothing more than a vague, swirling cloud. But then love wasn’t something tangible, something you could physically hold or see, so it wasn’t really surprising. Any material manifestation it took would undoubtedly pale in comparison to the real thing. The way it made you feel. The way it made you act. Not even magic, it seemed, had figured out a way to accurately represent love in anything other than the abstract.

She pocketed the bottle, and the two continued on. When they reached the bridge, Alice skipped across and grabbed the railing some way along; a space that hadn’t yet been covered over with locks. 

She leant against the bar and looked out over the water, the ripples dancing along under the afternoon sun. A dragonfly – or perhaps a damselfly, she could never quite tell the difference – darted this way and that across the river, its body an iridescent blur before finally coming to settle among the reeds.

“Ready?”

Alice turned to her wife – gosh, she never thought she’d ever get tired of calling her that – just as she pulled something out of her jacket pocket. A padlock. Their very own love lock, shaped like a heart, a bow and arrow adorning the space around the keyhole, accompanied by a paintbrush and easel.

Robin inserted the key, turning it so the lock clicked open with relative ease. That done, she watched as Alice unscrewed the bottle before pouring its contents over the reflective metal surface, the cloud seemingly dissolving around the lock. She then proceeded to manoeuvre it behind the nearest bar along the bridge. Alice’s hand moving up to settle alongside Robin’s, the two lovers closed the lock shut with a resounding _click_. Their hands fell away, as they looked at the lock now hanging, suspended, from the bar. She passed the key over to her wife, who subtly waved her hands over it.

“What was that?”

“Huh? Oh, I thought I’d enchant it a little. You know, so it doesn’t leach any strange metals into the water.”

“It’s nice to know that no matter how many scrapes we get ourselves, at least you always make sure none of the wildlife gets hurt,” Robin said in jest. “But to be fair, I’d probably have done the same if I’d known. And still had magic of course.” 

Alice raised her arm back, ready to toss the key. 

“Be careful, you might hit a fish!” came Robin’s voice, startling Alice out of the focus she’d been giving to her stance and position. She nudged her in the ribs, shaking her head playfully before finally throwing the key over the side of the bridge.

It hit the water, cutting through the surface to be lost from sight, no doubt sinking down onto the riverbed to lay among the silt and stones indefinitely.

The two lovers stood beside each other, bodies pressed together, their arms around their waists.

“I guess that settles it then,” Robin said, her gaze moving from the lock to the woman she loved. “You’re stuck with me now. I’m yours forever,” she teased, leaning in to meet Alice’s lips with her own.

“Forever,” Alice repeated, smirking once they eventually pulled back. “Or at least until someone dredges up the river.”

Robin rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Tower Girl? Did you have to ruin the moment?”

“Well it was a very bad metaphor, Nobin. Rivers are always changing and adapting even if it takes hundreds of years and bridges aren’t permanent either so it-” But her words were cut off by yet another meeting of her lips against Robin’s, initiated once again by her wife.

No matter what, their love at least would last an eternity.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> So I decided to represent Alice by a paintbrush and easel this time, partly because I use a bunny quite often and thought I'd change it up a little, and partly because I wanted something that's more personal to Alice, rather than something more associated with Wonderland, if that makes sense. Particularly when it's something like this.
> 
> Love Locks irl can apparently be a bit of a nuisance as they can cause structural damage to bridges if there's enough of them, so I like to imagine this was a bridge specifically designated for it.
> 
> I'm very much working on Chapter 6 of Happy Accidents, but whether it'll be my next upload or not remains to be seen. It's likely, but there's several other ideas I also want to try and get started on too.
> 
> Feel free to comment :)


End file.
